1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body supporting tool for a bed, which is a position-adjustable tool releasably mountable on a bed for supporting a person lying on the bed reliably and comfortably while allowing the bed to tilt safely.
2. Description of the Related Art
In various facilities such as a hospital, a therapeutic institution or a rehabilitation center, a bed is sometimes tilted right and left repeatedly with a person laid thereon for giving medical treatment or rehabilitation training. In such a case, in order to prevent the person lying on the bed from rolling or sliding sideward over the tilted bed, a nurse or an attendant operates a body supporting tool for supporting the body of a person lying on a bed by fixing the tool to a frame of the bed in advance and setting up the tool so that the person will be held on the bed in an optimal condition.
When the body supporting tool is used in order to prevent the person from rolling or sliding sideward over the constantly inclining bed, even a nurse or an attendant who is unfamiliar with handling the tool is required to operate the tool so that the person""s body can be supported on the bed optimally. However, it is not always easy for such nurse or attendant to handle the tool, and thus it entailed much time to operate the tool, and the person""s body was not supported on the bed in a satisfactory position. For this reason, there has been a call for a body supporting tool which can be operated and handled easily even by an untrained nurse or attendant, which can hold a person on a bed comfortably and reliably, and which allows the bed to be tilted safely.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a body supporting tool for a bed which can be releasably mounted on the bed easily and whose position can be adjusted conveniently after mounted on the bed, so that even a nurse or an attendant not so well trained in handling the tool can mount the tool on and dismount it from the bed quickly and reliably and can adjust its position quickly and reliably once the tool has been mounted on the bed, and hence the bed can be tilted safely while keeping a person laid thereon comfortably and reliably.
To achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention provides a body supporting tool for a bed which comprises a guide rail releasably fixed to a frame of the bed, a slide housing movable relative to the guide rail while guided by the guide rail, a turning support turnably held by the slide housing at a base end portion thereof and having an operating member on an upper end portion thereof, a slide housing movement control mechanism provided within the slide housing for switching states of the slide housing between a slide housing moving state in which the slide housing is allowed to move relative to the guide rail and a slide housing fixing state in which the slide housing is not allowed to move relative to the guide rail, a support turning motion converting mechanism for causing the slide housing movement control mechanism to switch the states of the slide housing from the slide housing moving state to the slide housing fixing state when the turning support is turned in a set direction by a set angle, and from the slide housing fixing state to the slide housing moving state when the turning support is turned in a direction opposite to the set direction by the set angle, and an abutment plate swingably supported around the turning support by the turning support, moving forward and backward along the guide rail together with the slide housing when the slide housing moves forward and backward along the guide rail, and supporting a body of a person lying on the bed while abutting the body.
Preferably, the slide housing movement control mechanism includes fixed engaging members and movable engaging members engaging with the fixed engaging members, the fixed engaging members extend in a longitudinal direction of the guide rail integrally with the guide rail, and the movable engaging members are arranged within the slide housing in such a manner that the movable engaging members move along the guide rail together with the slide housing and are set in a slide housing moving position where movement of the slide housing is permitted as the movable engaging members evacuate from an engaging position where the movable engaging members are engageable with the fixed engaging members on the guide rail and in a slide housing fixing position where movement of the slide housing is prohibited as the movable engaging members engage with the fixed engaging members on the guide rail.
Preferably, the support turning motion converting mechanism has a cam mechanism at a base end portion of the turning support in a manner coupled to interlock with turning movement of the turning support, and the cam mechanism causes the slide housing movement control mechanism to switch the states from the slide housing moving state to the slide housing fixing state when the turning support is turned in a set direction by a set angle, and from the slide housing fixing state to the slide housing moving state when the turning support is turned in a direction opposite to the set direction by the set angle.